Woman falls overboard in Kynsna Lagoon

The NSRI Knysna volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated yesterday following reports of a woman being injured after falling overboard from a charter boat near the Knysna Heads.

“It appears that the female, 52, from Mumbai, India, on holiday in South Africa with family, while on a cruise aboard the local commercial charter boat MOONRAKER, a 9 meter rigid inflatable craft, had fallen overboard while the boat was underway.
“It is not known to NSRI what caused the female to go overboard”, said Graeme Harding from NSRI.

“According to eye-witnesses the crew of the charter boat were unable to recover the female back onto the boat and the skipper of the charter boat then jumped into the water to assist the female” added Harding.

The yacht HEAD EXPLORER, owned by the Featherbed Company then came alongside to assist and the female was able to be recovered onto the ‘sugar scoop’ and the skipper of HEAD EXPLORER called NSRI for assistance.

HEAD EXPLORER then made her way towards Knysna Harbour with the female being held securely by crew members while she lay on the Sugar Scoop.

“Our NSRI Knysna volunteer sea rescue duty crew members met up with the yacht as they docked and NSRI medics found the female to have a suspected fractured right humerus and she was stabilized on-scene by NSRI medics. An ER24 ambulance was summoned and the patient has been transported to hospital in a stable condition” said Harding.

Hospital staff have confirmed that the patient has fractured her right humerus in three places and is due to undergo surgery.

SAMSA (The South African Maritime Safety Authority) have served an immediate prohibition notice on the charter boat MOONRAKER pending an investigation.